Electric drink mixers have been used for many years in homes and commercial establishments for mixing a variety of beverages. The conventional mixer generally includes a base from which rises a substantially vertical standard, and an electric drive motor projects over the base from the top of the standard. The motor carries a depending stirring arm which extends into a container supported by suitable support hardware attached to the front face of the standard. The front face of the standard is also generally provided with openings for projecting switch actuators which control electric circuitry mounted internally within the standard.
During operation of an electric drink mixer, the stirring arm rotates at high speeds resulting in some splattering of the stirred liquid, particularly if the liquid container is overfilled. Also, once a drink is mixed, mixer operators have a tendency to remove the drink container before rotation of the stirring arm ceases. This causes the stirring arm to throw liquid against the front face of the standard.
The splattered product should not be permitted to remain on any portion of the drink mixer long enough to present a contamination problem. Drink mixers used in commercial establishments are subject to stringent sanitation codes, and thus contamination is an extremely important consideration for drink mixers which are intended for commercial use. Therefore, some means should be provided to protect the mixer standard and the mixer hardware from contact by splattered product and thereby protect the drink mixer from contamination problems. However, no matter what means is used to effect this required protection, that means, itself, is subject to contamination and therefore must be amenable to being cleaned by a user.
However, mere amenability to cleaning is not sufficient, and such protecting devices should be easy enough to remove, to clean, to sterilize, to polish, and to replace so that such steps are likely to be carried out. If it is a difficult task to effect any of these steps, proper cleaning of the protection means may be omitted thereby creating a potential contamination problem. Furthermore, a drink mixer that has not been properly cleaned and polished may not present a pleasing appearance which is undesirable, especially for a commercial establishment.
In the past, the contamination problem experienced by electric drink mixers as a result of liquid splatter has been recognized. For example, splatter shields of the type disclosed by Oswell in U.S. Pat. No. 2,134,261 and Valbona et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,351,612 have been developed to prevent liquid from splashing onto various surfaces. The Oswell splatter shield occupies a position directly behind the upper portion of a standard to prevent liquid from splashing from a container on the machine against the wall immediately to the rear of the machine. However, the Oswell splatter shield does not protect the machine itself which is also subject to contamination. The Valbona et al splatter shield does not protect the drink mixer standard and is removably secured to a drink mixer standard by a container support assembly and a removable switch actuator assembly which also controls operation of a motor associated with the drink mixer.
While effective in protecting the drink mixer and switch assembly from splashed product, the Valbona et al device requires several separate operations to remove, clean and replace a switch actuator assembly, a container support assembly and finally the splatter shield itself. The numerous steps involved may make the cleaning of the Valbona et al splatter shield an undesirable task. Furthermore, the several parts involved in this splatter shield may increase the risk of losing one part during the cleaning process and may also increase the possibility of damaging one part during a cleaning process thereby diminishing durability and reliability of the device.
A plurality of processes may be required to manufacture the various parts of the Valbona et al splatter shield, and once manufactured, these parts must be assembled, either increasing the cost of manufacture or requiring a customer to assemble the device. None of these requirements is entirely desirable.
The drink mixer disclosed by Myers in U.S. Pat. No. 2,585,822 includes a front plate for guiding a container to and from its operative position around an agitator. The plate is secured by screws to a standard and has a hook integral therewith for supporting a container. While the Myers plate itself appears to be easier to manufacture than the Valbona et al splatter shield, the Myers plate is intended to be a part of the switch assembly and includes a switch mechanism fixedly secured by welding or soldering to the back face of the plate. Thus, every time the plate is cleaned, the switch mechanism should be disassembled and then reassembled after cleaning. The Myers device is thus even more subject to the above-discussed cleaning-associated drawbacks than the Valbona et al device.
Even further than this, the Myers device may be difficult to assemble at the factory and may also be difficult to service. Thus, any potential savings resulting from the one-piece nature of the Myers plate may be offset by other difficulties associated with this device.